People who smoked the MCAT and interviews

[Gatewayhoward]

Although my main interest is medicine, I have a personal interest in performace psychology. I'm curious to know for anyone out there who got either a great MCAT score or blew through the interview process I want to know, what was going on in your head at the time?

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[NapeSpikes]

It felt almost like a dream, where time stood still and I could see the stitching of the baseball as it was being pitched to me.

 

[MissMD'10]

It felt almost like a dream, where time stood still and I could see the stitching of the baseball as it was being pitched to me.

 

[Rafa]

It felt almost like a dream, where time stood still and I could see the stitching of the baseball as it was being pitched to me.

LOL. It was like that scene in Futurama, when Fry reached coffee nirvana.

 

[Saluki]

As I was taking the MCAT: I'm going to fail. There are so many questions. I'm going to fail. Why is my heart beating so fast? I'm going to fail?

During the interview: Was that the right thing to say? Is he laughing at me or at my joke? Why is he ending the interview early?

 

[JustBreathe]

During MCAT: Oh my God, this is harder than the practice test. Just think of it as another practice test! But it's harder! None of these answers are right

I don't do well during tests

 

[rgarrig]

...

 

[QuikClot]

I guess this includes me (39S, 2/2 interviews/acceptances BUT I have lots of shortcomings in my application and elsewhere, no voodoo curses please). I'm a low-anxiety person, with a tendancy to procrastinate. In high-pressure situations, I start out nervous but fairly quickly get lost in the flow of what I'm doing. I may (as on the MCAT) have occassional worries about my performance, but I'm able to fairly easily direct my thoughts back to the subject at hand.

This character trait (low-anxiety) influences me in a lot of ways, I think. I'm a bit of a slob -- something I notice is common to a lot of EMS workers and ER docs. I manage emergencies quite well (I'm a paramedic), but I sometimes space day-to-day responsibilities, and I notice that unless I make a concerted effort to develop a routine, I rarely do anything the same way twice. I will misspell a word three different ways in the same paragraph. I am adaptable and reliable, but not highly organized or precise (although like all pre-meds, I have strong perfectionist tendancies). Call it anti-OCPD.

 

[deleted77919]

MCAT: 37R.

Thoughts at the time: Nothing. Literally. When taking exams (serious ones anyway) I almost completely blank, it's just my brain, the paper, and my pencil, somehow they all connect and the right stuff goes down. In all honesty when it was over I didn't remember a whole lot about the day. The only time my mind wandered a bit (interesting personal goings on around that time) was during the verbal section, but the score in that section didn't appear to suffer.

 

[KidCapri]

I spent the night in the ER before the MCAT (stress induced). Then I almost fell asleep during the physical sciences section in the morning. By the afternoon i woke up (took a few more extra strength tylenol) and stayed alert through the biological sciences. At the moment of truth I almost voided the test, but overcame my fears and turned it in.

All this time nothing I can remember was going through my mind except that I must be missing every single answer. OH yeah my hands were shaking during the writing part, I was afraid they wouldn't be able to read my writing.

I did better than I thought I had.

Actually the interviews were not bad after the first one. Nothing particularly going through my mind here either.

 

[noonday]

MCAT 35S (13V, 11P, 11B). not sure it counts as smokin' it, but whatev's, it made my year...i was calm. i thought of it as a day of puzzles, and i love puzzles. when i would start to get anxious, i told myself "this is only a test, not an actual emergency" and "i can always take it again." i meditated when i finished sections early, and did mild yoga in the inter-section periods. and i brought a little flask of maker's mark, which i broke out when i finished the last section, and sipped through the exam pick-up process, much to the dismay of those around me.

interviews: 4 interviews, 4 acceptances. i wasn't thinking anything in particular at three of them. just felt like nice conversations. at one, which was a panel, i was really annoyed at the attitude of the interviewers and the attacking nature of it all, and one of the other interviewees grated on me, so there i kept thinking "don't get up and walk out"

EDIT: note, 3 of the 4 interviews were DO.

 

[riceman04]

Although my main interest is medicine, I have a personal interest in performace psychology. I'm curious to know for anyone out there who got either a great MCAT score or blew through the interview process I want to know, what was going on in your head at the time?

are you taking that class at Rice right now

 

[browniegirl86]

MCAT: I was thinking "I am going to make sure I NEVER take this damn test again." During PS, I was ahead of schedule, so I let myself take more time on calculations and ended up finishing right on time, which stressed me out because normally I finished early. Still, regrouped, and on verbal (my strength) I started to get really bummed because I thought it was an "easy" section and the curve would be less forgiving. Figured, "great, that's my best section and it probably won't be that high of a score." But frankly, I knew I did ok and was so done with the MCAT that I was just glad no major disasters occurred. Lunch was tasty: PB&J. Both writing prompts were things I knew nothing about, but didn't matter because I BSed through those. Then, bio sciences was REALLY hard, and I thought I sucked it up but really just didn't worry too much about it. I was so glad to be done with that summer.

Interviews: I was scared ****less the first time, but then quickly realized that the interviewers just wanted to talk about my application, and that if I just answered questions truthfully and acted like myself, they wouldn't be so bad. That was my strategy the whole time, and it worked out pretty well (10 interviews, 4 acceptences, 1 rejection, 5 withdrawals).


Good luck!

 

[IHaveLab]

I think one of the reasons that I did well on the MCAT was that I knew that I prepared really well. Obviously, everyone studies/learns differently, but going into the MCAT I was confident that I'd done the right kind of/amount of studying for me, as well as test prep (e.g. practicing getting up early, taking timed practice exams, testing out different foods to eat at lunch). So, when I got nervous/distracted during the test, my voice in my head said, 'hey, you're as prepared as you can be, so just focus and do your best,' rather than 'damn right you're freaking out...you don't know what you're doing...you should have re-read that Kaplan stuff.'

So, I'd say, being able to convince yourself that you're prepared and that you have the skills to do well is a major part of succeeding on the MCAT.

 

[Karl_Hungus]

Outright, saying that I "smoked" the MCAT would be an exaggeration (32P) when compared to some of the monster numbers posted here (congratulations, by the way). Relative to me, though, this is considered smoking it. My score was higher than any practice test I took and higher than I expected given that I had only studied a little before taking it.
As far as exam day, I devoted the day before to relaxing. I cooked dinner, watched an inspiring movie (Friday Night Lights ) and got a lot of sleep. On test day I entered focused on the test and reminded myself that yes, this test is hard, but everyone else takes the same test, I certainly don't want to retake it, and just suck it up and do the job.
Ultimately, though, I kept in the back of my mind that this one test is not the end-all of my application--I could retake it if needed, and people have gotten in with low scores. I just reminded myself to do the best I could.

 

[Brainsucker]

I've always been good at standardized testing and I knew that the rest of my application wasn't going to be particularly impressive. It was game time. I woke up early (which practically never happens with me) before the alarm clock went off. I knew I was going to kill the motherf*cker. 40. I still wonder if I could have done better if I had studied more than 2 weeks. I actually doubt it. I studied hard in my classes, so those 2 weeks were just review and the AAMC practice tests.

For interviews, I was lucky. I started out with a really friendly conversation at the school I ended up with. The next school was also good. (They let me in also.) After that, Case Western was blase and my WashU interview was terrible. AECOM wasn't terrific, either. NYU was pretty good, but I was way late and pretty sure I was in at one of the first two places I interviewed. All in all, I'm glad I started with great interviewers. If I had had the lame interview at WashU first, I would have been on my guard at places where I did well.

 

[Nikki2002]

i smoked a pancake

 

[Arsenic]

i smoked a pancake

gansta

 

[Nikki2002]

gansta

hey you

wtf is wrong with your avatar?

 

[QofQuimica]

Although my main interest is medicine, I have a personal interest in performace psychology. I'm curious to know for anyone out there who got either a great MCAT score or blew through the interview process I want to know, what was going on in your head at the time?

MCAT: I felt kind of giddy. I mean, the real PS section was so much easier than the Kaplan ones I had been doing, and I'm working through that first section going, OMG, I know that one! And that one! And that one! I NEVER felt that way during a Kaplan practice test. I was so excited that it was kind of hard for me to calm down enough to focus. Final score: 43S

Interviews: I love being asked to tell the interviewer about myself, because then I am the one who is setting the tone and topic of the conversation. I would say that I usually enjoyed my interviews, and I thought of them as giving me a chance to show the interviewer that I am relatively normal. This is a big deal for me because I think I can come across as seeming pretty freaky on paper. I also had a tendency to get off on bizarre tangents with a lot of interviewers. Schools reacted pretty extremely to me and my application; they either loved me or hated me. I hardly got waitlisted anywhere; almost every school either rejected me altogether pre- or post-interview, or else they accepted me, some with a scholarship.

 

[Arsenic]

MCAT: I felt kind of giddy. I mean, the real PS section was so much easier than the Kaplan ones I had been doing, and I'm working through that first section going, OMG, I know that one! And that one! And that one! I NEVER felt that way during a Kaplan practice test. I was so excited that it was kind of hard for me to calm down enough to focus. Final score: 43S

Interviews: I love being asked to tell the interviewer about myself, because then I am the one who is setting the tone and topic of the conversation. I would say that I usually enjoyed my interviews, and I thought of them as giving me a chance to show the interviewer that I am relatively normal. This is a big deal for me because I think I can come across as seeming pretty freaky on paper. I also had a tendency to get off on bizarre tangents with a lot of interviewers. Schools reacted pretty extremely to me and my application; they either loved me or hated me. I hardly got waitlisted anywhere; almost every school either rejected me altogether pre- or post-interview, or else they accepted me, some with a scholarship.

Only an "S" in the writing sample, no "T"?!?! You just werent on your game that day Q, for shame.

 

[Arsenic]

hey you

wtf is wrong with your avatar?

fixed it, for now atleast

 

[Hurricane95]

MCAT: went in confidently because I had studied so much for the past seven months that I was sure I was ready to perform at my best. There was slight performance anxiety, but no panic. I felt the kind of anxiety that a highly trained athlete or musician feels after practicing the same thing two hundred times and is now repeating it once more before an audience. Like dakota said, it was just me, the test and my pencil. After the exam, I totally blanked. One hour after the test i felt really exhausted and I could not remember a single thing that was on it. It was actually kind of scary, because somehow I managed to block out the entire exam. I finally ended up with a 37Q, which made me very happy.

Interviews: same deal, except I had not practiced too much. I know myself, my views and my goals well enough that I just walked in there and was ready to talk. Got accepted to both of the interviews I attended. I didn't bother interviewing at more schools that a) I probably would not have gotten into (too much $ to fly out for low acceptance odds) or b) schools I on second thought would not really have wanted to attend had I been accepted anyway.

 

[RxnMan]

I had a severe headache through most of the MCAT, but it didn't negatively affect my outcome. I jumped 5 points to a 36R.

The interview was pretty much how I practiced it. I just went through the motions like an actor. I had prepared for all of the questions they asked. I had told many of my ER tales to my friends, so by the time I told them in the interview they were polished. I've presented my research many times already, and to tougher crowds than the MDs I interviewed with, so I wasn't phased there either.

 

[QofQuimica]

Only an "S" in the writing sample, no "T"?!?! You just werent on your game that day Q, for shame.

I know, I know. Obviously I pissed off one of my readers, too.

 

[ismelllikepoop]

i smoked a pole

 

[janedoe4]

MCAT [40+]Q: "Please don't let me have to take this godforsaken test ever again." At the time I felt like I was doing fine but wasn't really analyzing the experience in enough detail to think I was doing any differently from my practice tests, where I'd been in the mid-to-high 30s. I think I was pleasantly surprised by how few questions I had to outright guess on, but that's about it. My standardized testing angel was at work, apparently.

 

[dbhvt]

PS: focus. be a machine. don't think, just spit out the answers.

VR: Why did she make me move seats? I can't believe she made me move. I liked that seat. What the hell. I'm going to screw this one up, I know it. D***it, she just called time and I have a whole passage left (c,c,c,c,c,c,c)

Writing: I'm a black civil rights activist, and I'm pissed off. That ought to get the juices flowing (seriously, hope noone is offended, but I grabbed onto that persona for some reason, it fit with the question, and kept the writing driven).

BS: focus. be a machine. don't think, just spit out the answers. Holy crap, I'm done.

 

[ZAZA67401]

You are going to be a doctor...? Why were you smoking during the MCAT and your interviews. What a hippocrit!

 

[razmataz]

i rolled up and smoked the MCAT and interviews in a peach flavored swisher sweet and will now pass to the left

 

[45408]

I went into the MCAT knowing that I would do well, because I'd prepared well, and I knew this shtuff. I scored higher than I'd expected (35Q), although the bloody nose in the middle of VR didn't help.

Interviews - 2 acceptances and one waitlist, no post-interview rejections. I just stayed calm and told the truth.

 

[Prospero]

well, I didn't get any 43S, but I thought that the test was pretty normal. Just another multiple choice test, the same old crap. My only studying was through Kaplan's book (didn't have all that much money to go throwing it at test prep), and that seemed to do fine for me. I guess you might not consider 36P smoking it (yes I realize that I suck at writing, I did not need the test to show me that).
Point is, I like science (big surprise I'm sure) and so I got 13's on each of those and a 10 on verbal. I speak english, what more do you want? Anyway, that was my feeling. The verbal felt like the SAT's again, and the science parts felt like any of my foundations exams, I guess it's just a matter of confidence and I've always had confidence when I go into an exam.
Just remember that it's not the only thing on your app and you'll feel better, I hope.

 

[QofQuimica]

well, I didn't get any 43S, but I thought that the test was pretty normal. Just another multiple choice test, the same old crap. My only studying was through Kaplan's book (didn't have all that much money to go throwing it at test prep), and that seemed to do fine for me. I guess you might not consider 36P smoking it (yes I realize that I suck at writing, I did not need the test to show me that).

If you're directing that comment to me, the answer is yes, I do consider scoring a 36 to be "smoking it." That is a superior score, above the 95th percentile.

 

[jebus]

i rolled up and smoked the MCAT and interviews in a peach flavored swisher sweet and will now pass to the left

puff puff pass that mcat.

 

[Saluki]

well, I didn't get any 43S, but I thought that the test was pretty normal. Just another multiple choice test, the same old crap. My only studying was through Kaplan's book (didn't have all that much money to go throwing it at test prep), and that seemed to do fine for me. I guess you might not consider 36P smoking it (yes I realize that I suck at writing, I did not need the test to show me that).
Point is, I like science (big surprise I'm sure) and so I got 13's on each of those and a 10 on verbal. I speak english, what more do you want? Anyway, that was my feeling. The verbal felt like the SAT's again, and the science parts felt like any of my foundations exams, I guess it's just a matter of confidence and I've always had confidence when I go into an exam.
Just remember that it's not the only thing on your app and you'll feel better, I hope.

I think a 36 or above is smoking it!

 

[OrganLibrarian]

I got an S in the writing! BOOYAH!

I smoked those essays with my detailed analysis of the decline of Britney Spears's pop empire.

 

[RxnMan]

puff puff pass that mcat.

Puff puff give! Puff puff give! C'mon! You're messin' up the roTATion!

 

[ashabee4]

I got a 33P, and as this was a huge jump from my first score, in my own mind I feel that I smoked the MCAT. Like many other people said, I barely remember anything from that day. It was just my brain, my pencil, and the exam. I was completely in the zone, efficiently blowing through the questions. The rest of the world did not exist that day. I definitely blanked almost everything out during that 8-9 hours.

 

[Bluntman]

First off I drew a fat Stussy on my desk for good luck. That always seems to work. Hmm other than that I only really remember a couple of the things I thought about that day:

1. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to Kayti's 21st bday party the night before.

2. My buddy is a ******* for showing up for the test at 9am like when all his Princeton practice tests were. Talk about test prep...he paid $1500 to get the wrong f'in time stuck in his head!

3. God I can't wait till this is over cause there are Js and shotglasses laid out ready for me and my (other) buddy when this finishes.

4. How the hell could this one girl sit through the entire day just to raise her hand and have her exam voided at the last minute?!

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[pagemmapants]

38S.

Phys: ". . . dude, these kids all look like high schoolers. . . weird. Wow look at that guys' formula sheet. WTF didn't I do a formula sheet!? Hooooly**** imma fail. My tummy hurts. Maybe that steak last night was bad. OMG what if I have food poisoning and I have to barf in the middle of the test?! Why does my foot itch so much? JESUS CHRIST it itches! That's just not fair. . . Oh, ok, time to start. Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiage. . . flip flip to the discretes. Hm. Ok, lens question. . . not so bad. *computecompute* Word. Damn. Orbital question. ok. 1s2, 2s2, 2p6. . . GODDAMN MY FOOT ITCHES!" . . . etc.

Verb: "Well. Ok. You ran out of time at the end, but suck it up you weenie the easy part's next. HOLY**** 11 passages?! Those A-HOLES! . . . HAHAHAHAHA you've got to be kidding me. A passage on Robin Hood?! NO WAY! At least my foot stopped itching. Ok. Focus. NO EXTREME ANSWERS!"

Writ: "Lah de dah, this section is BORING. I wonder if I can fit the word "Yak" into this essay. . . . *does so* . . . "

Bio: "WORD! This is your section, baby. DO THIS **** AND YOU'RE OUT OF HERE! . . . Dang, I wish I'd have brought more for lunch, girlfriend is STARVING now. Whee, vodka on an empty stomach tooonight. ETHANOL! EtOH. CH3CH2OH. Can undergo elimination to form ethene. Sweet. Ok. They're getting ready to start. . . *flipflipflip* TRIIIIIIIAGE! *beep beep* 'paging Dr. Pagemmapants' hahahaha. Ok. Focus, mushbrain. Whee, hardy-weinburg. Those sweet sweet cafeteria buddies and their silly little equation, I can do THIS!" . . . etc.

It's noisy in my brain.

 

[swifteagle43]

did you?

 

[ILoveIceCream]

Hmm I dont know much about smoking the mcat, because I sure as heck didn't smoke anything, the only thing that smoked was my fried brain after the test...but I thought the highest MCAT score for the last few years have been 41. I guess the mcat people forgot about the 43.

 

[pattayapus]

hmm i can only answer the MCAT Q:

i was sitting in a support-less cushion-chair in a stuffy berkeley lecture hall, and yet my buttbone felt like it was sitting on rock...as i was reading the verbal passages and slowly drifting away, i kept thinkin in a kind of detached way how devastated i'd be if i just stopped then and there and left half the test blank...and then i proceeded slower and slower and slower through the test, just kinda screwing myself over...disinterest...self-pity...sleeeeppp...

 

[Saluki]

Hmm I dont know much about smoking the mcat, because I sure as heck didn't smoke anything, the only thing that smoked was my fried brain after the test...but I thought the highest MCAT score for the last few years have been 41. I guess the mcat people forgot about the 43.

No, the highest score for the past few years has been a 43....